Hi! Anyone know any good websites or books for learning Italian? We have one ‘teach yourself Italian’ book at home, but it’s not really that much help and a bit confusing.
Some thing like: ‘learn Italian for people who already know Latin’ would be good 
, but we’re also looking for a book with phrases in Italian. So that you can learn the grammar by memorising common sentences, but not just ‘where do I find the electric light-bulb?’ as in the Italian book we have at home . More like ones you would use in every day Italy which teach you how the Italians use the conjunctive and other clauses for example as well as word order.
Hugo Italian in 3 Months, then just get a reference grammar. Italian’s easy for those who have done latin/greek, but as always vocabulary and idioms are no pushover at all. It all depends on your willpower and how long after the beginning course you decide to pursue the language in order to, for example, understand their TV well.
which reference grammar would you suggest?
Hugo Italian in 3 Months, then just get a reference grammar. Italian’s easy for those who have done latin/greek, but as always vocabulary and idioms are no pushover at all. It all depends on your willpower and how long after the beginning course you decide to pursue the language in order to, for example, understand their TV well.
I second that suggestion. I used ItalianITM. Good grasp of the accidence of Italian verbs now and what have you. For vocabulary this book will do fine. I spent a summer reading that in my late teens. I personally wouldn’t bother with a reference grammar. That’s plenty to be getting on with. The “in 3 Months” series isn’t a pushover with regards to grammar, like Deutsch Direkt or those other dodgy BBC courses.
I wish I could remember all the little bits of languages I learnt earlier on in life… 
I wish I could remember the italian I did for 2 months a while ago hehe…I stopped as I had no use for it…
Turp have you seen the German edition of the 3 months series! It’s crazy! Not that I’ve even begun it yet but it looks bad. Also it’s 13 weeks and that is more than 3 months!
Reference grammar italian verbs and essentials of grammar.
I remember ages ago I PM Lucus Eques in italian because he said he could italian but he did not reply. Asif he doesn’t check his PM.
Turp have you seen the German edition of the 3 months series! It’s crazy! Not that I’ve even begun it yet but it looks bad. Also it’s 13 weeks and that is more than 3 months!
Basically the thing with the German in Three Months book is that they go around making up new and confusing terms for grammatical concepts. It’s not the dative it’s the IO case, not the perfect but the pre-present. For someone who’s taken the trouble to learn Latin, this is completely discombobulating.
Do you, O Bishop, know of any webcasts transmitted in Italian? That was my problem learning it before - lack of contact with the language.
If you don’t really want to mess with grammar why not try rosetta stone sofware? I am using it to learn spanish. You can try it out for free on the Net. They have everything from Arabic to Chinese. Just go to this site http://www.rosettastone.com/home/online_login click on _current subscribers_and when it loads up click on No license, sample lessons. Even if you don’t want to get the software the online language previews are fun.
That’s what I use now to stay in touch with Italian. There are lots of other radio transmissions in Italian, but they tend to be unstable.
I also buy lots of books in Italian whenever I am in Italy. From tourist books to literature to newspapers to history books.
I also found that taking a course to get you started (grammar!) is very beneficial. I’m doing that with modern Greek now, the self study just doesn’t work for me when I’m completely new to the language, even if I learned Greek and Latin at school.
Adelheid
…that was my problem too, I have no exposure, not used to their way of speaking, no one to speak with … All I have is dawson’s creek in italian 
well we probably won’t be having the problem of ‘no exposure to italian’. my problem will be too much exposure and not enough italian skills .
Are you going over there for a while?
Probably. Not 100%, but it is quite likely . And I don’t want to live there without being able to speak a word of Italian.
Cool. I went to Italy for 5 months when I was a student. If you didn’t already take lessons, I would advice you to do so IN Italy. That will speed things up and you will have someone to explain the phrases that you hear around you.
I cannot recommend a phrasebook (they would be Italian-Dutch and I would have to dig in the one box that remains unopened after having moved a lot in the past years), but start with those ‘tourist’ one’s anyway. They do offer you the phrases you will be using the most in the beginning and they WILL get you started.
Adelheid
I’ll see what I can find in Italy… I’m sure there must be some place there offering Italian lesson 
. Which part of Italy did you visit?
I went to Bologna.
I responded to you, Episcope. You didn’t get my response? We had at least four messages in that conversation.
Anyway, we should just start a public conversation in Italian. Feel up to it, Episcope?
I just recently started learning Italian. In the process I got a bunch of different books and cds from the library. The most helpful one so far is called “Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way”. It sounds hokey but is actually pretty good. It’s picture based–so pictures for all the new vocab, which is very helpful since it puts a picture in my mind and not just a translation. It also has little games and quizzes, and interesting dialogues. And pronunciation guide for all new words. good stuff.
That sounds exciting! I hope you get to go. There’s no better “motivation” to learn a new language than being thrown right in.
I received 3 responses. All in English. When I changed to Italian there was no reply. Simple and don’t lie because you know that I am not spitting out any falsehoods here.
Hi,
Have you ever tried the Assimil courses ? I’m learning French right now and I found the assimil course very good for self study.Each lesson is not large (it takes about half an hour a day). They claim you can manage the language in 5-6 months. I will confirm you in 4 months
I don’t know if I am allowed to post a commercial link here, I haven’t read all the rules yet 
Out of curiosity:which part of Italy are you moving to?